


enjambment

by landana (miikkaa_xx)



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-25 23:46:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12046815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miikkaa_xx/pseuds/landana
Summary: Jaehyun was always the maknae, until new trainee Mark Lee comes along.





	enjambment

**Author's Note:**

> **warnings:** swearing

-

So yeah, he’s always known Mark was going to be more important. Inevitable, really, when even the EXO sunbaes are talking about him before he even shows up. Taeyong gets even more antsy, eager, and Doyoung and Taeil talk to each other about reorganizing the dorms if a new kid was coming so soon.

Jaehyun watches Mark’s rehearsal video out of bland curiousity, ignores the way his chest tightens and twists when Mark’s tongue curls around each syllable clear and cut, doesn’t slur the way Taeyong does, doesn’t trip when the beat changes like Jaehyun does.

Taeyong’s always told him he would be the maknae - who else has trained for years, always ranking higher than the older trainees, watching impassively from the shadows while dozens upon dozens are recruited and eliminated systematically and cruelly.

Jaehyun’s been through the training cycle and back, along with Johnny, who is supposed to be in charge of the English anyway. They’re the lingual duo or something - Johnny, American-born, and Jaehyun, bilingual maknae. It’s just how things _work_. How things are _supposed_ to work.

New kids flown in by themselves from Vancouver to Seoul with stuttering Korean don’t get to - they don’t get to - to -

 

 

 

‘Hello, sunbae,’ says Mark, apprehension all over his face. ‘Um. Please take care of me?’

‘It’s hyung,’ says Jaehyun sharply, then retreats. ‘Yeah - you’re Minhyung, right?’

‘Mark,’ he insists.

Jaehyun forces a smile. ‘Mark.’ He gestures towards the door of the practice room he’s walking towards. They shouldn’t block the hallway for everyone. ‘Jung Yunho.’

So he says his real name on purpose just to see Mark’s anxiety spike - whirling around in case the TVXQ sunbae does actually appear. Jaehyun laughs - it’s mean, but he feels a little better. ‘That’s my name too. Everyone calls me Jaehyun.’

Mark looks back at him, his shoulders visibly deflating. ‘J-Jaehyun-hyung?’

Huh. Hyung sounds nice. But he wasn’t here to waste time soliciting attention from sunbaes -  Jaehyun nods to Mark and promptly walks right past him without looking back.

 

 

 

Taeyong won’t _shut the fuck up_.

Neither will some of the EXO sunbaes but Jaehyun doesn’t _live_ with them. Taeyong, on the other hand…

‘He’s improved his dancing so much,’ he says over ramyun dinner, waving his chopsticks in emphasis. ‘And Doyoung has been helping him with his manners - he’s gonna get really good soon!’

Jaehyun slurps his noodles loudly. Taeyong doesn’t get the hint.

‘You think he’ll be part of the first round of debuts? I don’t know if he’s ready - I _hope_ he is, he’s really _really_ good.’

He doesn’t care. ‘I don’t know.’

‘ - and he’s _so cute_ ,’ says Taeyong before he seems to register that Jaehyun’s said something. ‘Have you even talked to him yet?’

Jaehyun winces. ‘Neither has Johnny,’ he says in his defense.

‘You should.’ Taeyong scrunches his eyebrows and looks at Jaehyun, eyes bright and preternaturally lucid all of a sudden. ‘If he did debut, he would be maknae instead of you, right?’

‘I’m done,’ says Jaehyun loudly, standing up and taking his bowl with him.

 

 

 

Doyoung spends a lot of time with Mark but - blessedly - he doesn’t talk about him incessantly. Jaehyun hides in his room for now, reading some of Taeyong’s manga that he’s borrowed from Taeyong’s embarrassingly large stack.

‘I heard they’re announcing subunits soon,’ says Doyoung, lying on his bed with his phone.

Jaehyun is flopped next to him. ‘How can a bunch of netizens know what the company is doing before we even do? Bullshit.’

Doyoung huffs - his version of a laugh, quiet and breathy. ‘Don’t say that in front of the camera.’

‘So?’ He prompts - insatiably curious. ‘When’s the announcement?’

‘In the fall,’ says Doyoung. ‘That’s enough time for even Mark to be ready, hm.’

‘Who cares if he’s ready,’ snaps Jaehyun then buries his face into the pages of One Piece, already regretful. ‘I mean - the company doesn’t care about one trainee over a dozen,’ he tries.

Doyoung is quiet for what feels like too long and then nods, ‘you’re right. Who knows if he’ll debut with us.’

 

 

 

It’s fine if Taeyong and Doyoung are completely fucking obsessed with Mark because at least Johnny isn’t, and Jaehyun had thought Johnny would’ve been the first one to latch onto Mark Lee, Trainee Wonder.

That is - until Jaehyun sees them both in the practice room talking in English too fast for Jaehyun to keep up. He was supposed to meet up with Johnny, except apparently Mark had beaten him there, and now the last parts of Jaehyun’s Not-Mark-Life is officially gone because inevitably Johnny will fall in love with him too and Jaehyun will never fucking get away from this _boy_ \- who wasn’t _supposed_ to even _be_ here - this fucking _kid_ \- this _maknae_ -

 

 

 

‘Where were you today?’ Johnny asks at dinner. He’s found Jaehyun holed up in Jaehyun’s favourite convenience store where the ramyun bowls are an entire 150 won less because Jaehyun is nothing if not cheap.

‘Stomach bug,’ says Jaehyun. ‘Food poisoning.’

‘So you’re eating _this_?’

Jaehyun stares at Johnny and blows the steam off his ramyun without breaking eye contact. ‘Yes.’

Johnny makes a face but sits down next to him at the counter. He’s bought shrimp-flavoured chips. ‘Whatever - hear about the subunit announcements?’

‘Doyoung-hyung said it would be in the fall.’

‘They pushed it back to spring,’ Johnny sighs. ‘That’s the new rumour anyway.’

Jaehyun’s stomach twists in on itself. He ignores it and takes another bite.

‘I met that new trainee though.’ Even the loud crunch of the chips don’t muffle Johnny’s cheery tone. ‘Mark - he’s a good kid. His English is a lot better than his Korean though - but I think he’ll get the hang of it.’

‘By spring right?’ Jaehyun bites out before he can help himself.

Thankfully, Johnny doesn’t seem to notice the hostility. ‘For sure, yeah.’

‘Good,’ says Jaehyun, staring at his ramyun, appetite gone.

 

 

 

Eventually, Mark gets added to the dorms with the older trainees. Inevitably, they place the two youngest together in the same room.

Jaehyun sits on his side and tries not to glare holes into Mark’s neatly-made bed across the room. Mark is unpacking his clothes - folded messily, shirts and jeans mixed up - and piling them into the closet.

‘I don’t think I’ll stay here - I mean, I train with all the younger ones anyway, right, so I’ll try not to bother you, hyung - ’

He’s rambling - all his anxiety written so obviously along the tense line of his shoulders, the scrunch of his eyebrows. Jaehyun lets him continue, watching, waiting, waiting for _something_.

Nothing happens.

Jaehyun doesn’t understand.

Mark empties out his backpack of clothes and shoves the backpack in the corner next to the dresser. He looks over at Jaehyun, smiles - a little hesitant, but still bright, sweet.

Jaehyun can’t feel anything.

At least - at least - not what he’s _supposed_ to feel. This is golden boy, trainee wonder, SM sweetheart Mark Lee - here to steal away all of Jaehyun’s hyungs, steal Jaehyun’s spotlight, steal Jaehyun’s whole _point_ of being in this group - and Jaehyun can’t fucking feel anything he’s supposed to be feeling.

None of that gut-churning _hate_ that pervaded Jaehyun’s bloodstream for the past month every time he’s heard the name Mark Lee from other people. None of that muffled terror of being _replaced_ lurking in the back of his mind. None of that irrational annoyance that comes up when he tries to link Mark Lee’s sudden appearance with SM’s scheduling delays with their debut.

It’s all gone from the room because suddenly, real life Mark Lee is standing in front of him, helplessly, _hopelessly_ young, with an eagerness to _please_ that Jaehyun can’t help but…

‘You won’t be a bother,’ he says slowly.

‘Oh.’ Mark exhales, seems to relax. ‘Yeah?’

‘Just - uh - don’t make a mess. And I’m a light sleeper, so if you could…’

‘Ah - yeah! Yeah, for sure, hyung!’ Mark is nodding, grinning wider, brighter, _sweeter_. ‘I’ve never really shared a room before but I’ll be a good roommate, I promise!’

Oh.

Mark Lee is - for all intents and purposes - _good_. Good in a way that no one else that Jaehyun’s ever met. Good in a way that makes it so fucking _easy_ to take advantage of by someone else. Someone like Jaehyun.

 

 

 

‘You seem a lot less tense,’ says Taeyong in one of his rare moments of actual wisdom and not senseless babbling.

Jaehyun shrugs.

‘You guys get along?’

‘Yeah.’

Taeyong seems a touch exasperated at the lack of details but shrugs it off, turns his attention back to the stove where he’s trying to fry meat. He says it’s the first time in a long time that everyone has been home in the dorms at the same time so they deserve a home-cooked meal with meat. Doyoung is at the table chopping vegetables. Taeil has gone out to buy alcohol because he’s the oldest. Johnny is babbling incomprehensibly to Mark in the common room next door doing god-knows-what; Jaehyun doesn’t know since he’s busy spacing out staring at the rice cooker.

‘I still can’t believe you moved out from my room to join Mark,’ starts Taeyong. ‘I thought we were good roommates.’

Taeyong is conveniently leaving out the part where Doyoung was the one that moved into the room, kicking Jaehyun out to stay with Mark; Jaehyun wonders if he’s complaining for the sake of it. ‘He’s better.’

‘Better?’

Jaehyun doesn’t know how to describe it - that it feels different when he’s awake at three in the morning watching how his roommate is curled up in their bed, that when it’s Taeyong in the fetal position, it’s sort of embarrassing, but seeing Mark’s knees tucked to his chest as he sleeps has Jaehyun’s chest twisting in on itself.

‘He’s cleaner than you,’ he says to Taeyong instead. Mark, who fastidiously keeps his stuff from ever crossing the invisible line in the middle of the room. Mark who cheerfully shares his face cream or a pair of socks and dutifully folds his clothes however messily, even folding Jaehyun’s clothes because he just _wants_ to be _good_ for his roommate.

‘And,’ continues Jaehyun. ‘He’s quieter.’ Mark actually talks a lot more than Taeyong - but it doesn’t grate. It never feels heavy and intrusive, never about laying his insecurities in front of Jaehyun, asking silently for some sort of comfort. Instead, Mark talks in a constant stream about the foods he tried out, the dance move that tripped him up, the songs he likes, the fact that he accidentally used Doyoung’s toothpaste in the common bathroom and hopefully Doyoung doesn’t notice but it’s fine, Mark knows the brand so he can buy another tube.

Sometimes, once in awhile, Mark _is_ quiet - goes soft and attentive when Jaehyun says something more than a sentence long. He doesn’t vibrate in want to respond, doesn’t interrupt whenever Jaehyun is struggling to find a word. He simply waits, listens, nods.

Those moments are the worst - because Jaehyun sometimes feels like he can’t breathe afterwards. All he’s said is, ‘I hope we debut soon,’ and suddenly, Mark is looking at him in the dim light of the room, eyes bright, and Jaehyun can’t stop himself from _continuing_ , from saying stuff like, ‘it’s been so long’ and ‘I thought we were ready’.

Afterwards, Mark just - he just -

‘And he’s definitely cuter than you, hyung,’ says Jaehyun, listening to the rice cooker beep.

Taeyong makes an offended noise but he’s too busy saving the meat from burning to retaliate.

 

 

 

Afterwards, Mark just hugs him. Sits in Jaehyun’s bed and tucks his face into Jaehyun’s chest, arms looped warm and firm around Jaehyun’s waist.

And Jaehyun thinks he gets it, at least a little. Maybe it’s okay that Mark Lee is the favoured golden boy, the apple of everyone’s eye, when Mark Lee is like this: sunshine-bright and sticky-sweet and - and -

 

 

 

At night, when their debut lurks in the dark, still nebulous, and the rest of the city is asleep while Jaehyun is listening to Mark’s breathing, waiting, waiting. At night, Mark curled into himself and Jaehyun watching the curve of Mark’s lashes along his baby-soft cheeks. At night, where no one is watching and no one knows, Jaehyun thinks yeah, he could give it all up - attention and spotlight and being maknae - for someone like this, someone like Mark Lee, who is sunshine-bright and sticky-sweet and so, so fucking easy to _love_.

-

**Author's Note:**

> my first nct fic; I hope you enjoyed~


End file.
